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{
    "id": 195911,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/195911/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 109,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 158,
        "legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
        "slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was in the process of concluding my contribution. I was making specific recommendations to the Minister. When he was moving this Motion he expressed the need to increase some of those items from 10 per cent to three per cent--- Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the bursary item should not be handled differently. For those of us who come from the ASAL areas, this is an important issue. We would rather allocate 100 per cent to the bursary fund. We should remove that ceiling, which was increased to 15 per cent. Let it be subject to the ordinary provisions of any project which cannot attract more than 50 per cent of the CDF money. Mr. Murungi said that we should not dictate the priorities of the constituency; let them come the way we know them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I think I want all my students in my constituency to pursue law and medicine degrees then this will be need I will have identified. For the last five years my constituency has not been able to support a single student to pursue a law degree, yet we want them to compete with students in the rest of the country. I would want to set aside some money and support ten of them, even if this means supporting them to pursue the degrees through the parallel programme. That cost about Kshs2 million. This is something I cannot do at the moment. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I would like to address the issue of auditing. There is a philosophical issue here. Auditing should not be the preserve of a particular department. We should know when auditors are visiting our offices, so that we are not ambushed. The auditors who visit 694 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 24, 2008 my constituencies, for example, go to bars and expect our staff to meet them there. I object to this kind of arrangement. When the auditing has been done, the report of the auditor should be made available to the Constituency Development Committee (CDC). I have not seen an audit report for my constituency for the last five years. I went to Mr. Gichohi when he was the Acting CEO of the CDF to request a copy of the report, because I wanted to understand various issues and be part of the solution. But when the audit process is done in a very secretive manner--- For the information of the Minister, the auditors we have, and you heard me when I contributed to the Accountants Bill, are not some of the most honest people in this great Republic. They are use auditing as a means to solicit money from our people. Some of us come from a different background. We have no interest in those things. We have often told them off. Therefore, let us make sure that auditing involves the community. If we can make proposals about the locational committees or the divisional committees--- In my case, the constituency has five divisions. They are very many. They should be part and parcel of the auditing, so that there is community participation in the process. This is the culture that I want the Minister to take note of. County councils are audited and every hon. Member knows they will audit and confirm projects that do not even exist. Just because one or two CDF projects have been messed up, that is no excuse for thinking all of us are messing up our CDF projects. About 99 per cent of CDF projects have made a difference in this country. They must continue. We want to learn and improve on the CDF. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I support the appointees."
}